Nuala Fennell

Irish Fine Gael politician (1935–2009)

Nuala Fennell (; 25 November 1935 – 11 August 2009) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist and activist who served as Minister of State from December 1982 to January 1987 with responsibility for Women's Affairs and Family Law. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South from 1981 to 1987 and 1989 to 1992. She also served as a Senator from 1987 to 1989.

Born Fionnuala Campbell in north County Dublin on 25 November 1935, the third eldest child of Patrick Campbell, from the rural east County Galway area of Lisheennavannoge, one of the earliest Garda recruits, and his wife Elizabeth (née Roberts), from Glasnevin, Dublin. Fennell had two sisters and three brothers. She met her future husband, Brian Fennell, at the Templeogue Tennis Club, and they emigrated in 1957 to Montreal, Canada, where they were both employed by the Sun Life Company. The couple returned to Dublin and were married in 1958. Fennell took up secretarial employment in a legal firm in Dublin, at a time when married women were frowned upon for working. The couple had three children. Fennell was involved in setting up the first refuge for "battered women" in Dublin. She was involved in the 1975 campaign for the right to divorce in Ireland. In 1972, she helped found Action, Information and Motivation (AIM), a pressure group campaigning for women's equality in marriage. She lost her seat at the 1987 general election, and was nominated by the Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald to the 17th Seanad, in his last days serving as Taoiseach. She was then elected to the 18th Seanad on the Labour Panel. At the 1989 general election, she was returned to the 26th Dáil, but retired from politics at the 1992 general election.